Mission

"I am glad you are still alive." Raiha said while his golden eyes bore on Aliester.

The poor young master had fallen down on his rear due to exhaustion. He felt as though all of his strength had left his body.

Worst, the pain he felt now was twice… no ten times more than when he first woke up after transmigrating. That is, if he would count the emotional and psychological damage, he took after that gruesome 'tutorial' quest.

However, even he felt rather weak, he could not help but jab at the guardian in front of him.

"If you are going to butt in the fight, you should have joined in earlier when we were fighting a lot of those undead." He could not stop himself from bitterly blurting out his sentiments.

Aliester looked around and saw the other knights who were knocked out cold. He tried checking the map and discovered that the blue dots had been reduced to ten.

"A couple of knights died. If you have gotten here sooner, there wouldn't be any casualties." Aliester grumbled. He could not help but resent Raiha.

"I am a guardian, I could not simply waltz in and interfere with your affairs." Raiha answered with a frown. "Besides, if they are destined to die, we, guardians could not easily cut in and overturn their fate. There would be certain consequences."

Aliester knew that deities and guardians could not easily meddle with the lives of mortals. That seemed to apply to both in this realm and his former realm.

Fahren, in particular, had the concept of gods and deities but they are close to merely myths and legends. Fahrenians would pray, and there is a force somewhere that could help a little, but the humans must be the ones to work to achieve the results.

It seemed that in Lamiales, the gods and deities could not simply butt in the businesses of the people. They could not simply show themselves and brought a groundbreaking difference.

Though there were cases with which they would extend a hand on a worthy person, but it only applicable to rare and special cases.

Since he still felt a bit sullen, Aliester tried guilt tripping the guardian.

"I thought I was going to die…I was thinking you have forgotten about me and left me to fend for myself."

Raiha looked a bit troubled. "I haven't forgotten about you. I had been preoccupied as of late, so I was not able to monitor you closely."

The guardian sighed and tossed a small vial to Aliester. "Here a little something to recover your strength. It isn't much for compensation for what you have gone through, but I hope you won't be grumpy as before."

Taking the vial, Aliester narrowed his eyes on the suspicious bubbling green fluid inside. He knew that Raiha does not have any intention of killing him, so this is not a poison.

He almost dropped the vial when Zarame suddenly spoke. [Notice: the vial contains an elixir that could revitalize one's body.}

'Basically, this is a recovery potion.' Aliester mumbled as he opened the item. He gulped while eyeing the suspicious mixture.

"Here goes nothing." He then chugged down the fluid. "though the color seemed off, the taste is somehow mild."

Just then, he felt a sudden surge of mana inside him. He looked in fascination as his nicks and scratches had closed up. The fatigue that he felt also vanished and he felt energized.

"This is great!" Aliester forgot his resentment.

Then, remembering the thunderbird, he turned to looked at the guardian. "why exactly you're here? I doubt you only came here to stop the fight and give me a potion."

"Smart guy." Raiha complimented as he moved to sit. Clouds of metal-like particles had rose and took the form of a chair with which Raiha sat on.

Raiha then seriously said. "Aside from giving you a bit of assistance, I am here to talk about your mission. We were not able to talk about it when I summoned you."

"What will my mission be?" Aliester asked. He never had a good feeling about this but he knew he could not do anything to refuse.

Raiha then declared. "Save this realm from being engulfed by darkness."

Aliester's eyebrows knotted. "You are kidding!!! You are giving me the save the realm mission?! Just staying here for a fortnight, I have a grasp of what was happening."

He continued... "This kingdom is cursed, overran by monsters and undead. As far as I know, this place is already shrouded in darkness. I think it is already too late for that."

"It is not that too late." Raiha tried to reason out. "There are a lot of survivors. You can still save some lives."

"I can't believe you are giving me such an impossible mission." Aliester complained. "I think purging and rebuilding this place would be more suitable. But that would be a lot of work."

Raiha then offered. "Well, if you do not want that, then maybe, I can give you the other one. Originally, it is the princess's mission to save her father's kingdom. It only fell on you since you got summoned in her stead."

Raiha smiled like a shady businessman. "Since you are not the right person for that job… then I will give you another task. Your mission is to bring the princess here. She is the only one who can correct and salvage this realm."

Aliester stopped short. He thought that Kanna was supposed to be the one to bring this realm to salvation. If this place is already in the brink of destruction, then Kanna would have a hard time.

'But if we are both here… I might be able to finally get close to her and impress her.' Such hidden intention crept into Aliester's mind. 'I might as well give it a shot.'

"How? She is still stuck in the other realm, right?" Aliester asked. "As a guardian, you can also summon her."

Raiha then answered. "I am not strong enough to bring back the princess. My powers got depleted due to a repercussion when I tried to grab her soul from another realm. I am still suffering from the taboo I committed… So I would leave it to you to bring her back."

"How?" Aliester was quite perplexed about this mission. The guardian could not summon her, but the ordinary human Aliester can do it? It does not make sense.

"You can travel to other realms using an ancient spell." Raiah spilled the beans.

"So, I can go back to Fahren?!" Aliester was a bit shocked to know.

"Yes, but not as Aris, since you have died. You can go there in a limited time as Aliester." Raiha replied.

Aliester looked down. He can indeed go back but in another person's body. "Where is the spell? Can you give it to me?" he further inquired.

"Unfortunately, I do not have the spell. It is not my jurisdiction to travel realms, you need to find the grimoire." Raiha provided. "Your predecessor already gained the knowledge about what needs to be done."

Aliester's eyes widened when he remembered something. "Knowledge you say? I wish I can look at the original Aliester's memory. But I was only allowed to access fragments."

Raiha looked like he remembered something since his face brightened up. "The predecessor had sealed off his memories. It would be a disaster if he got caught and his enemies will know what he had been planning."

"Then how can I retrieve his memories if he sealed them?"

Raiha held out his hand in front of Aliester. He chanted something in different tongue and a white pentagram formed.

Aliester writhed on the ground as memories flooded his mind.

His eyes secreted water. "It hurts!"

"Those are only the most recent memories he have. More of the memories will be shared to you as time would go by." Raiha said while looking at the man whose writhing like a wounded snake.

After a while, the pain and the memories subsided. Aliester did not only gain memories from his predecessor, he also felt the shackles that sealed his skills break.

'Zarame, could you check I my status?' he asked the system.

Aliester's eyes widened when he saw the screen.